Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-08-06

/ lumine the darkness. That was Pauls
king. But the next moment he goes into the
realm Of Him whose reign is love, and
whose courts are paved with love, and
whose throne is set on pillars of love, and
whose scepter is adorned with jewels Of
love, and whose palace is lighted with
love, and whose lifetime is an eternity Of
love. When Paul was leaving so much
on this side the pillar of martyrdom to
gain so much on the other side, do you
wonder at the cheerful valedictory of the
handf'
Now, why cannot all the old people Of
this congregation have the same holy gleo
Is that aged man hadl Charles L, when
he was combing his head, found a gray
hair, and he sent it to the queen as q
great jokei but old age is really no joke
at all. For the last forty years you have
been dreading that which ought to have
being an exhilaration. You say you must
fear the struggle at the moment the soul
and body part. But millions have en-
dured that moment, and why not we as
well. They got through with it, and so
can we. Besides this, all medical men
agree in saying that there is probably no
( struggle at all at the last moment-not so
much pain as the prick Of pin, the seeming
signs of distress being altogether involuntary.
But you say: ut is the uncertainty of the
! future" Now, child of God, do not play the
] infidel. After God has filed the Bible till it
| can hold no more with the stories of the good
things ahead, better not talk about uncer-
tainties.
But you say: ''I cannot bear to think Of
parting from friends here.n II YOU are old
| you have more friends in heaven than
here. just take the census Take some
large sheet of paper and begin to record
the names of those who have emigrated
to the other shore; the companions Of your
school days, your early business aSsoci-
ates, the friends of mid life and those who
more recently went away. Can it be that
they have been gone so long you do not
! care any more about them and you do not
! want their society," Oh, no. There have
been days when you have felt that YOU
rould not endure it another moment away
from their blessed companiOnship They
have gone. You say you would not like
trouble, even il you had the power. Il
would not do to trust you. God would
not give you resurrection power. Before
| tomorrow morning you would be rat
tling at the gates Of the cemetery, crying
to the departed: ''Come back to the cradle
where you sleptl Come back to the hall
where you used TO playl Come back to
| the table where you used to sit n and there
would be a great burglary in heaven. No,
/ no! God will not trust you with resurrection
power, but he compromises the matter and
| says: You cannot bring them where you
are.n They are more lovely now than ever.
Were they beautiful here, they are more
beautiful there.
| Besides that, it is more healthy there for
| you than here, aged man; better climate
there than these hot summers and cold
winters and late springs; better hearing:
better eye-sight; more tonic in the air;
more perfume in the bloom: more sweet
| ness in the song. Do you not feel. aged
man, sometimes, as though you would like to
get your arm and foot freei Do you not
feel as though you would like to throw away
| spectacleS and canes and crutchess Would
you not like to feel the spring and elias
| ITCHY and mirth of an eternal boy
| hOOdl When the point at which you start
| from this world is old age, and the point to
which you go is eternal juvenescence, aged
man, clap your hands at the anticipation,
and say, in perfect rapture Of soul: ''The
time OF my departure is at hand.n
remark, again, all those ought to feel
this JOY of the text who have a holy curl
Osity to know what is beyond this earthly
terminus And who has not any curiosity
about it, Paul, l suppose, had the most
satisfactory view of heaven, and he saws:
ut doth not yet appear what we shall be. y
1t is like looking through a broken tele-
scope: Snow we see through a glass
darkly." Can you tell me anything about
that heavenly places You ask me a
thousand questions about it that l cannot
answer. | ask you a thousand questions
about it that you cannot answer. And do
| you wonder that Paul was so glad when
martyrdom gave him chance to go over
and make discoveries in that blessed
country!
hope some day, by the grace of God, to 60
over and see for myself; but not now. No
well man, no prospered man, think, wants
to so now. But the time will come, think,
when l shall go over. want to see
what they do there, and I want to see
how they do it. l do not want to be look
ing through the gates ajar forever l
want them to swing open. There are
/ 10000 things | want explained-abOut you.
about myself, about the government
of this world, about God, about
| everything. We start in plain
path of what we know, and in a
minute come up against a high wall of
| what we do not know. / wonder how il
looks over there. Somebody tells me it is
like a paved city-paved with gold; and
another man tells me it is like fountain,
and 1t is like tree, and it is like tri-
unlphal procession, and the next man
meet tells me it is all figurative l really
want to know, after the body is resur-
rected, what they wear and what they
| eat and have an unreasonable curiosity
to know what it is, and how it is and
where it is. Columbus risked his life to
| find this continent, and shall we shui,ler
to go out on voyage of discovery which
shall reveal vaster and more different
/
life TO find passage between
icebergs, and shall we dread TO find a pas-
sage to eternal summer Men in Swift
zerland travel up the heights of the Mat
terhorn with alpenstock and guides and
rockets and ropes, and getting half way
up, stumble and fall down in a terrible
massacre. They just want to say they
had been on the tops of those high peaks
And shall we fear TO go out for the ascent
of the eternal hills, which start thou
sand miles beyond where stop the highest
peaks OF the Alps, and when in that as
cent there is no perill A man doomed to
die stepped ON the scafTold and said i'm Joy:
"Now, in ten minutes l will know the
| great secret One minute after the vital
functions ceased the little child that died last
night i'm Montague street knew more than
Jonathan Edwards, or St Paul HIM
self, before he died Friends, the exit from
this world, or death, if you please to call
it, TO the Christian is glorious expla-
nation. 1t is demonstration Il il iln-
mrIntion. II 10 smiburst II Is the opening
of all tho windows. Il is shutting up
The catechism of doubt and the unroIling
of all the scrolls of positive and ac-
cuinte Information. Instead of stand
ing at the foot of the ladder and looking
mn il X standing mt tha foD If tina